Nikki Sixx Talks Nonsense to the Wall Street Journal

20 July 20097 Comments

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By: Andrew Bilach

Disclaimer: I’m a Motley Crue fan. I’ve been one since I first saw their video for “Dr. Feelgood” on MTV. I purchased Dr. Feelgood on cassette from The Wiz in 1989. I’ve seen the band live countless times. I own all the records. I’ve watched all the videos. I read all the books.

Nikki Sixx and Kat Von D

Nikki Sixx recently spoke to Kamau High of The Wall Street Journal and commented that he thinks the internet is ruining rock and roll.

“The first thing I did when I walked into the arena to work on the set I said, â€˜Itâ€™s 2009 and thereâ€™s a million iPhones with a million opportunities to take a picture of our show and ruin Christmas.”

This comment is so absurd I’m actually speechless. This is coming from a man who is not only active on MySpace, but has his own personal blog.

â€œIâ€™m so over the Internet, Twitter is ridiculous and thereâ€™s too much info out there. Celebrities, movie stars and rock stars are losing their mystique.”

I concur about there being too much information available to the general public. This doesn’t just go for rock stars and celebrities. This goes for everyone. As far as losing mystique goes, he might want to explain “The Dirt” and “The Heroin Diaries.” Or, perhaps VH1’s Behind The Music. Or, Vince Neil doing a reality show. Or, Tommy Lee showing his house on MTV. Or, Tommy Lee “going back to school” on network television. Maybe Nikki should take a little lesson from Mick about maintaining mystique. Just a thought. This is the age of the internet. You can’t distort reality any longer, Frank.

Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee

â€œWe want to control as much as we can of whatâ€™s getting out there about us so that people who come are blown away. The other day I went to a movie with some friends and they were like, â€˜Letâ€™s look it up on the Internet and see what people are sayingâ€™ and I was like â€˜Man thatâ€™s messed up,â€™â€ he says. â€œSince when is Joe in Poughkeepsie or Sue in Roanoke deciding when something is a great show?â€

Joe and Sue are the ones buying your tickets. They are shelling out hundreds and hundreds of dollars to see you year after year. They’re the ones buying your greatest hits compilations. How many have you released already? About six? Change the name, record a studio track, and voila, you ask your fans to plunk down another $20.

I think Nikki Sixx is the man. I just hate when artists do hypocritical interviews. The internet is here, my friends. Embrace it. It’s not going away.

With that said, I will be attending Cruefest this year. And, as for their show that was so well-reviewed in Camden last night, that’s actually making people buy tickets for other stops on the tour. I received three instant messages this morning from people that decided to go buy tickets in their local market because of how awesome the show was received by “Joe” and “Sue.”

In closing, people who value “mystique” don’t write autobiographies and don’t post hundreds of candid photos of themselves online.

Franklin, Franklin, Franklin.

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As an artist and as a fan. As an artist – I somewhat agree with the way Nikki commented that the “Internet is ruining rock and roll.” Yes and No. (But it’s not just Rock n Roll, it’s the music industry in general)

Yes – Because, obviously with the “Napster” thing (pre-lawsuit) and all the torrent sites out there, people can just steal your product, making it even more difficult to make a living as an artist.

Think of it as if you owned a restaurant, or a car wash, or whatever and people were eating your food or washing their cars or what have you… for free. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it, because “That’s just what happens these days”.
So explain to me, how is a business owner and their employees supposed to make a living if other people are just taking their product for free?? Of course I’m not speaking in literal terms with these analogies. I’m not against free samples though! 🙂

No – Because with MySpace, PureVolume, iTunes, GarageBand, internet radio and all these other sites that feature music make it so much more accessible to discover new music everyday. So as an artist, YES, I want my music to be heard EVERYWHERE, and the internet is definitely helping in that aspect.

If you think about it, Nikki Sixx among many other rock stars from that era come from a generation when there was no internet. But they’re more like larger-than-life rock gods to me. Much like Alice Cooper, Kiss, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Ozzy, etc. Say or think what you will about those bands, but the simple fact is, 20 or 30 years down the road, people are STILL going to know who they are.
No one is going to remember most of these bands of today like Flyleaf, or Hinder or Trapt or Buckcherry, etc. I’m not disrespecting any of these bands, just giving an example.

Also with the iPhones. (Those things are so cool too!) But when you want to surprise your fans with something really cool, it’s a little tougher to keep it under wraps with this technology. But on the other hand, if I’m on the net and I see something that makes me say “Oh my god! I gotta go see that!!” Then you bet your ass I’m glad I found out about it!

Celebs losing their mystique… Hmm, well, I couldn’t agree more on this one. Nothing to say here.

Yes, times have DEFINITELY changed and continue to do so at a very rapid rate. There are many pro’s and con’s and the only thing we can do is embrace it.

As for going on the internet to see what other people think about a movie – I like to form my own opinion and decide if I like the movie or not.